Apple makes WhatsApp migration from Android to iPhone easier

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WhatsApp on a smartphone: Apple wants to attract more Android users

Photo: Fabian Sommer / dpa-tmn

When switching from an Android smartphone to an iPhone, the entire WhatsApp chat history can be transferred directly if this happens during the initial setup of the iPhone.

Previously, users always had to resort to additional programs from other providers.

The WhatsApp transfer is now part of the Android app "Transfer to iOS" (download from the Play Store), as Apple announces.

The app establishes a direct WiFi connection between an Android smartphone and an iPhone.

Previously, photos and videos, contacts, messages, web bookmarks, and some settings could be transferred in this way.

WhatsApp is now added as another option.

A prerequisite for the transfer to work is that users keep their phone number when switching from one smartphone to the other.

Moving app can now also select and download apps

The "Transfer to iOS

app works with Google's cell phone operating systems from Android version 5 (Lollipop).

According to Apple, it does not have access to user data during transmission.

If you have already set up your iPhone, there is still no easy way to transfer your WhatsApp chats afterwards.

The only conceivable detour in such a case would be to completely reset the Apple cell phone and then set it up again using Apple's app and including the WhatsApp data from the old Android smartphone.

Until now, WhatsApp only allowed the transfer of chat histories from iPhones to Samsung smartphones across different platforms.

Apple is initially offering the function for WhatsApp migration from Android to iOS as a beta version.

The company is also improving its moving app in another respect: Previously, data from various free apps that you used on your Android cell phone and that are also available for iOS were already transferred, but users had to download them from the App Store themselves download.

Now apps available in the App Store can be automatically selected and loaded by »Transfer to iOS«.

mak/dpa